State At A Glance

August 30, 2007

EAST HADDAM -- Oliver Patrell could have turned the 45 acres of forested, riverfront land his family owns along the Eightmile River into a six-lot subdivision, but instead he sold the property to a group that has promised to preserve it as open space.

MIDDLETOWN -- Mayor Sebastian Giuliano has chosen Patrick McMahon, a former police official in Norwich and Groton, as the new deputy chief of the city police force. McMahon will be introduced as the mayor's nominee at a gathering today in the council chambers at city hall.

MIDDLETOWN -- Federal prosecutors say the number of tax returns Eugene Carlin falsified goes ``far beyond'' the 32 for which he was sentenced on Wednesday to serve a year and a day in prison. Assistant U.S. Attorney Anastasia E. King states in a sentencing memorandum that Carlin admitted falsifying ``every return he filed which contained itemized deductions.''

NEW BRITAIN -- After an hourlong hearing that left defendant Henry Kozuch and his victims crying, a judge on Wednesday sentenced Kozuch to jail for injuring several motorcycle riders and then fleeing in his pickup truck. Kozuch received an eight-year prison sentence, suspended after 11 months.

NEWINGTON -- A 36-year-old man accused of assaulting his father and trying to run down two police officers during a morning rush-hour chase was arraigned Wednesday amid concerns over his mental health. John Capuano shuffled into the courtroom in New Britain wearing a white jumpsuit and shackles. His father, Robert Capuano, 60, was at Hartford Hospital Wednesday afternoon in stable condition after undergoing surgery.

SUFFIELD -- Police are warning residents to lock their cars and secure their valuables after 12 unlocked cars were burglarized early Wednesday. Several neighborhoods, including subdivisions on Marburn Drive, Brookside Drive and Silver Creek Drive, were the target of burglaries between 2 and 6 a.m. Wednesday, police said. Purses, sunglasses and radio systems were stolen from cars that were easily accessible, police said.

WEST HARTFORD -- The chairwoman of the Democratic town committee has challenged her Republican counterpart to agree to have all local candidates refrain from using oversize, billboard-style campaign signs. Although town zoning rules do not apply to the use of political signs, which are protected by free-speech rights, residents complained that the oversize placards were unsightly when some candidates, Republicans and Democrats, posted them in residential neighborhoods during the 2005 local campaign.